Angelou to celebrate 80th birthday in Atlanta

Posted: Saturday, May 03, 2008

ATLANTA - Maya Angelou may be 80, but she doesn't party like it.

The author-poet-dancer-singer-activist will celebrate her birthday in Atlanta on Sunday with a star-studded gala including a red carpet and a celebrity guest list. The soiree will benefit a YMCA teen center bearing her name.

It's her third birthday party since she turned 80 on April 4.

"I feel very young," Angelou said in a phone interview from her home in Winston-Salem, N.C., this week. "My knees have gone to hell in a bucket from arthritis and so forth. But other than that, I feel really grand."

Longtime friend Andrew Young - a civil rights icon and former Atlanta mayor and U.S. ambassador - and his family organized the celebration. "We had talked with her about helping her celebrate her birthday here in Atlanta because she's done so much for us through the years," Young said.

A citywide party also was held April 19 in Winston-Salem, where Angelou moved in 1981 to take a professorship at Wake Forest University.

Age hasn't slowed her down. She's working on a book of essays about what she calls "life and the human condition" to be published by the end of the year. She travels the country in her customized bus - she doesn't like flying - attending speaking engagements, visiting friends and spreading her infectious joy.